1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to accident reconstruction systems and, in particular, to systems analyzing and assessing critical driving situations.
2. Description of the Related Art
Today, enormous efforts are undertaken to raise the passenger's security in modern vehicles. Besides air-bag systems and improved vehicle body constructions, control systems play a growing role. Electronic control systems for brake or vehicle dynamics control (VDC) have significantly increased the passenger security in modern vehicles. Note that, as the related prior art documents, there are listed Non-Patent Documents 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5.
A negative effect involved in spread of the vehicle dynamics control (VDC) systems is that they complicate the reconstruction of the events seconds before an accident. Very often, braking traces on the road surface are missing. Braking traces are an important means for the investigations of accident reconstruction specialists. Therefore, the question of guilt cannot clearly be answered.
Furthermore, the number of insurance frauds is rising. Today, it is estimated, that 10% of all insurance events in Germany are manipulated and that the annual financial damage in Germany is higher than 1 billion dollars.
Existing systems for accident reconstruction or so-called event data recorders (EDRs) are either using solely measured information provided by proprietary sensors (e.g., Patent Document 1) or using the vehicle's airbag system.
Another approach for vehicle motion reproduction is solving a set of differential equations (e.g., refer to Patent Document 2).
[Patent Document 1]
German Patent DE 19509711 A (Page 1 to Page 3)
[Patent Document 2]
German Patent DE 4132981 A (Page 1 to Page 4 and FIG. 1 to FIG. 3)
[Non-Patent Document 1]
M. Burckhardt., “Radschlupf-Regelsysteme”, Vogel Fachbuchgruppe: Fahrwerktechnik. Vogel Buchverlag, Würzburg, 1st edition, 1993
[Non-Patent Document 2]
S. L. Miller et al., “Calculating longitudinal and lateral wheel slip and tire parameters using GPS velocity”, Proceedings of the American Control Conference, Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE), Arlington, Va., USA, 2001
[Non-Patent Document 3]
U. Kiencke and L. Nielsen., “Automotive Control Systems”, Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, N.Y., 2000
[Non-Patent Document 4]
M. Mitschke., “Dynamik der Kraftfahrzeuge”, Band A: Antrieb und Bremsen. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, N.Y., 2nd edition, 1998
[Non-Patent Document 5]
M. Mitschke., “Dynamik der Kraftfahrzeuge”, Band C: Fahrverhalten. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, New York, 2nd edition, 1990
The above-mentioned conventional systems involve a problem in that all information necessary for quantitatively analyzing and evaluating the critical driving situations such as accidents cannot be recorded therein.